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After Hamas terrorists conducted the October 7 massacre, their victims were not just Israelis. While the world focused on Israeli suffering, the suffering of foreign workers has been all but ignored.
By JPOST EDITORIAL FEBRUARY 5, 2025 05:55
The parents of a 26-year-old Thai man kidnapped by Hamas hold up his photo.
(photo credit: REUTERS/THOMAS SUEN/FILE PHOTO)
When Hamas terrorists stormed into Israel on October 7, their victims were not just Israelis. Among the over 250 hostages they dragged into Gaza were foreign workers who had come to Israel seeking better opportunities. These workers were laboring in Israel’s agriculture sector, supporting their families back home. They had nothing to do with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but Hamas treated them no differently from anyone else.
The world rightly focused on the suffering of Israeli hostages, but the sufferings of these foreign workers have been all but ignored. As one Thai survivor recounted to Reuters: “I went through hell.” It is time to tell their story.
According to reports, Hamas kidnapped at least 54 Thai on October 7. Besides the hostages, at least 39 Thai were killed that day. Nepal also suffered tragic losses: 10 Nepali students working on farms were murdered by Hamas, and many others were taken hostage. Filipino, Tanzanian, and Sri Lankan workers were also caught in the crossfire.
These were foreign workers who were not combatants, not settlers, not even Israeli citizens; they were trying to make a living and support families thousands of miles away. Hamas showed them no mercy. As Human Rights Watch documented, “Palestinian armed groups committed numerous war crimes and crimes against humanity against civilians during the October 7, 2023 assault on southern Israel.”
The attack was entirely indiscriminate – a true reflection of Hamas’s terrorist nature, which makes no difference between civilians and combatants, Israelis and other nationals.
It also underlines the lie of another fiction on which much media reporting of Hamas’s war depends: Its “resistance” is a heroic, unyielding protest against the heavy hand of an Israeli military “occupation.” Actually, it has to do with brutal violence visited upon anyone, including the most defenseless of people.
Thailand, with tens of thousands of its citizens working in Israel, managed to negotiate the release of some of its hostages. Five nationals, namely Pongsak Thenna, Sathian Suwannakham, Watchara Sriaoun, Bannawat Seathao, and Surasak Lamnau, were released from captivity by Hamas on January 30.
Their release was part of a wider ceasefire agreement, but many more remain in captivity, and their families live in continued fear. According to The Guardian, Narissara Jantasang, whose husband remains in hostage, told her son: “I told my son to keep strong – let’s wait for dad.”
For Nepal, the October 7 attack is still a raw wound. The families of the murdered students are yet to come to terms with the grief, while the government in Kathmandu has found it hard to explain why young Nepalese – who flocked to Israel in search of jobs – ended up victims of a war they had nothing to do with.
Financial support isn't enough
Israel has given the families of the murdered and kidnapped workers financial support, but no amount of money can replace anyone’s life. The greatest tragedy is that these men and women came out from their homes in search of a bright future, yet found themselves entrapped in a living bad dream fabricated by Hamas.
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Despite the gravity of this crime, international outrage has been nonexistent. No mass protests are taking place against Hamas in Bangkok or Kathmandu. The UN, always ready to denounce Israel at every opportunity, has remained largely silent over the foreign hostages. The so-called international human rights community, quick to espouse the protection of civilians everywhere, has little to say in amplifying the voices of these victims.
The selective outrage of the international community reveals its hypocrisy. Human lives should be given the same value, irrespective of nationality. If the world truly cherishes human rights, then it needs to acknowledge that Hamas committed war crimes not only against Israelis but also against foreign nationals who had nothing to do with the conflict.
It’s about telling their stories, setting the record straight about these foreign workers. What Hamas would want the world to believe is that it’s for Palestinian liberation, that its struggle is against Zionism and Israeli “occupation.” But that is far from the truth: Hamas is a terrorist organization; it massacres indiscriminately.
These were farm workers and students who came to Israel for economic opportunity. Their fate proves that Hamas’s violence is not about resisting oppression but actually about pure bloodshed.
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